On 30 August 1800, a
tremendous storm dropped heavy rain on central Virginia,
swelling creeks and turning Richmond's dirt streets into
quagmires. The storm aborted one of the most extensive
slave plots in American history, a conspiracy known to hundreds
of slaves throughout central Virginia. A charismatic
blacksmith named Gabriel, who was owned by Thomas Prosser, of
Henrico County, planned to enter Richmond with force, capture
the Capitol and the Virginia State Armory, and hold Governor
James Monroe hostage to bargain for freedom for Virginia's
slaves. The intensity of the storm delayed the
conspirators' planned gathering, and a few nervous slaves told
their masters of the plot. The arrests of the
conspirators, including Gabriel, led to trials in Richmond,
Petersburg, Norfolk, and several surrounding counties. The
conspirators were tried in courts of oyer and terminer,
established under a 1692 statute in which testimony was heard by
five justices, not a jury, with appeal only to the governor.
Twenty-six slaves were hanged, and another apparently committed
suicide in his cell. Several convicted slaves were sold
and transported out of Virginia. Two slaves, who had
informed their masters about the intended rebellion, received
their freedom.

Historian Douglas R. Egerton
definitively places the insurrection within the context of
post-Revolutionary Virginia, when Democratic-Republicans and
Federalists argued about the proper extent of liberty and
debated the legacies of the French, American, and even the
Haitian, Revolutions. Learning from these debates, Gabriel
based his actions on conceptions of freedom and liberty that
flowed from the revolutionary movements. At Gabriel's trial, Ben
Woolfolk, who had been recruited by Gabriel, testified that
Gabriel intended to "purchase a piece of silk for a flag on
which they would have written 'death or liberty' "-a
clear reference to Patrick Henry's fiery speech of 1775. If
white Richmonders agreed to free the slaves, according to one
conspirator, Gabriel "would dine and drink with the
merchants of the City." One insurgent reputedly
stated that "I have nothing more to offer than what General
Washington would have had to offer, had he been taken by the
British and put to trial."

Gabriel's Conspiracy had an
immediate impact on American politics and Virginia law and
society. The planned rebellion was widely reported in
American newspapers, and, during the 1800 presidential campaign,
the Federalists cited the event as a consequence of the
Democratic-Republicans' support of the French Revolution and
ultrademocratic ideals. The intense scrutiny made some of
Virginia's leaders uncomfortable with the execution of the
revolutionaries. Monroe, a participant himself in a war
for liberty, expressed concern about the number of executions.
Thomas Jefferson agreed that "there is a strong sentiment
that there has been hanging enough. The other states & the
world at large will forever condemn us if we indulge in a
principle of revenge." In the wake of the affair,
however, Virginia's lawmakers imposed new restrictions on slaves
and free blacks. Whites would never again be complacent
about the possibility of slave uprisings.